Help Heather Tipton: A Nurse, Grandmother & Survivor

Heather’s Story

A Letter from Charles Maddix

My name is Charles Maddix, and I’ve been a nurse for more than two decades. I met Heather Tipton back in 2004 when we worked together at Baptist Hospital in Jacksonville. We carpooled, worked long shifts, and spent years caring for patients side by side. Heather’s been a nurse for over 30 years. She's the kind of nurse who never clocked out emotionally—she carried her patients' stories home with her. She’s dedicated her life to helping people heal.

That’s why I’m organizing this fundraiser: to help Heather fight for her freedom, recover from unspeakable trauma, and seek justice after surviving a near-fatal police shooting at the hands of Clay County, Florida Sheriff’s deputies.

When Heather needed help, no one helped her. Instead, she was nearly killed—and now she's being treated like a criminal.

Earlier this year, Heather was in the midst of a mental health crisis. She’s been struggling with severe depression ever since 2010, when her only son, Michael, died by suicide over Memorial Day weekend. She was in Tampa with her daughter, visiting family. Michael was back in Fleming Island and took his own life after a breakup. That loss broke something in Heather. Anyone who knows her saw it. She's never been the same since.

For years, the mental health system in Florida has failed Heather—and countless others like her. She’s sought help. She’s battled this pain. But in moments of crisis, there’s often nowhere to turn. When she cried out for help in 2025, she didn’t get a therapist or a crisis team or a safe mental health facility.

She got two police officers.

Yes, she had a firearm—but when they arrived, she immediately dropped it. She never pointed it. She never made a threat. She needed help—not a gun.

One officer tased her. And as the electricity surged through her body, the second officer opened fire.

Heather was shot more than ten times.

The trauma surgeon at Orange Park Medical Center said there were too many wounds to count. Heather was rushed into emergency surgery and was in the OR almost daily for a week. She was intubated in the ICU, put on a ventilator, and required chest tubes because the bullets damaged her lungs.

She lost her spleen, had part of her bowel removed (and now lives with a colostomy bag), underwent foot reconstruction, and still has a bullet lodged in her spine, dangerously close to nerves.

That bullet has left her unable to feel her bladder. She has no sensation in her pelvic area. She cannot tell when she needs to urinate, and she’s completely numb around her private areas. That feeling has not returned.

And then, while still healing in the hospital, she was arrested and charged with assault on a law enforcement officer. They moved her to the jail while she was still bandaged, bruised, in pain, and trying to survive.

They claim she “lunged” at officers. Anyone who knows Heather knows that’s impossible. She’s short, heavyset, walks with a limp, and was nearly disabled before any of this happened. Notice the picture from when Heather and her co-workers were ringing in the New Year, she is wearing a boot! She wouldn’t lunge at anyone— she couldn’t. What she needed was to be taken to a hospital—not gunned down in front of her own apartment complex, while walking her dog.

Now she’s in jail on a $500,000 bond. She’s refusing to eat because of the conditions. She’s in constant pain. And she’s being prosecuted like a criminal for something she never did.

We’re trying to raise at least $12,000 to:

If you know an attorney—criminal or civil—who will stand up for Heather, please reach out. If you can donate to help fund her legal defense, we would be forever grateful.

Heather’s story is tragic—but it’s not rare. This is what happens when mental illness is met with guns instead of care. This is what happens when the system treats the sick like suspects.

Heather gave her life to helping others heal. Now she needs us to help her.

Please share her story.

Charles Maddix, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC

Nurse Practitioner & longtime colleague of Heather Tipton